AMD pledges not to ditch socketed chips

Rumours of Intel’s plans to ditch socketed processors altogether have caused an outcry in enthusiast circles, although we doubt Intel will abandon the market anytime soon.

However, AMD is looking to capitalize on the controversy, so it is reassuring consumers that it will keep offering socketed APUs and CPUs in the foreseeable future. In a brief statement issued on Tuesday, AMD’s Chris Hook stated that the company will keep churning out socketed Kaveri APUs and FX CPUs in 2013 and 2014.

“We have no plans at this time to move to BGA only packaging and look forward to continuing to support this critical segment of the market,” wrote Hook.

AMD claims it is still committed to desktop enthusiasts and tinkerers.

However, in the long run, we will probably continue to witness increasing levels of integration, especially in the low and mid-end markets. This trend is probably best exhibited by AMD’s own APUs.

With an ever increasing emphasis on power efficiency and the need of the PC market to transform and constantly adjust to new trends, a few years down the road the desktop market could be unrecognizable, for better or for worse.